Solace
by Saya-Kururugi
Summary: An ambitious young troll is badly injured after being betrayed by her closest friend, and in her efforts to deal with the aftermath finds herself forced to trust and depend on others in an emotional and vulnerable way. (Story consists entirely of fantrolls, no canon characters will appear.)


Your name is Talion Dastre. You're six sweeps old, and you are going to die.

Your name is Talion Dastre. You're six sweeps old, and you are going to _kill everyone around you_ if it's the last thing you do.

Rising to your feet you let out a loud shout, swinging your chained weapon around with all your strength. Predictably, it has very little effect on your attackers. One gets hit in the chest and looks a bit winded. You really wish you'd picked a different weapon.

Your attackers quickly move in to surround you, and you switch tactics. You hold your chain taut between your fists to block their attacks as you try to overcome your fatigue and come up with a plan. There are four attackers, two Green, a Teal, and a Cerulean. You'll have to be careful of the Greens' claws, you've gotten cut up a few times, but the Cerulean will be the real problem. You're pretty sure you can safely ignore the Teal, they tend to be physically weaker than most Highbloods.

As if on cue, the Teal throws a punch you can't block and knocks you back down to the ground. Of course he's faster than you. You should've seen that coming.

You get back up, chain ends whirling and elbows jabbing out anywhere you can reach. You're not going to win. You know this, but you can't give up. You don't-You _can't_ stop fighting. You can't just give in and die. You have so much left to accomplish. You have a goal, a dream.

The Teal is having trouble. Most Tealbloods aren't used to fighting in groups larger than a partnership, this one is probably no different. He keeps circling around and trying to get a hit on you, but the Greens are getting in his way. Seeing a way to take advantage of this, you turn your back pointedly towards an open area, and a Green quickly comes forward to fill in the gap. It's a success for you. You may be surrounded, but now the Teal is blocked out away from you. Three against one is better than four; your odds have improved.

Improved odds or not, you're still losing badly. You may have made a mistake. In close quarters it's too difficult to avoid the Greens' claws, and it's near impossible to swing your weapon. You're stuck fighting with your fists, and as scrawny as you are they aren't doing much damage. With one bladed weapon and two sets of claws, your attackers are just playing with you now; bleeding you out slowly, torturing you to death. You are going to die, and you won't even do it with any dignity.

You see a flash of white near your feet. Looking down you see your lusus, a pure white sheep barely as tall as your knees, weaving back and forth through the fray. What is she doing here? Doesn't she realize how dangerous this is? It's not as if she could possibly help you at all. She's just going to get killed along with you if she tries to interfere. Nobody else has noticed her yet, so you look away. Hopefully she'll get the message and leave.

The Cerulean lunges forward with her weapon raised. You brace yourself for the attack, holding up your chain and tucking your face between your raised arms. The hit never comes. The Cerulean suddenly falls backwards. Your lusus has tangled herself between her legs and tripped her!

The Cerulean curses and jumps back to her feet. Bringing one leg back she delivers your lusus a swift kick, which sends the creature flying.

Blood comes out. There's blood. On the ground and on the troll's foot. It's _red_. It's dark and dark and fresh and it's so **_red_**.

**_Red red red red red red red red red red_**.

Something hurts. Something _screams_. You swing your chain and the weighted ball at the end hits someone square in the face. It's the someone that you have to kill. You can feel your rage boiling over. You don't care. You are going to _kill_. They are going to _die_. You leap forward.

The others are holding back. You're acting different. They're afraid. You're shaking. These are things you are only dimly aware of. The enemy is trying to get away from you. The enemy is backing away away and raising its blade and wrinkling up its face and the enemy has_hurt your lusus_ and it is going to **die die die die die**.

You swing your chain. The blade disappears. You swing again. The troll stumbles. You wrap your chain around her neck and pull. She falls.

You turn on your toes and spring the opposite direction, lunging at the Greens. As you engage one the two remaining trolls run away into the night. The Green can't fight alone. It's crying. So are you. You swing.

You wipe your face of blood and tears as the body falls. The others are long gone, vanished into the dark. Cowards. If you ever see them again you'll

die.

You kneel beside your lusus. She's alive. She opens her eyes as much as she can and nuzzles her nose against your leg. You're glad she's alright. But it isn't enough. _Some day_ you'll be able to protect her. When your plans follow through you'll ensure that not a single drop of red blood falls again, from lusus or troll. Scooping your guardian up in your arms, you turn and walk off the scene. You pass a familiar face.

Your friend runs his eyes up and down your bruised and bloody body. You glare back at him and snarl. "Like what you see?" you spit out.

He sighs, and buries his face in his manicured blue hand. "You're a mess, Talion." he says. "Why do you keep doing this?"

"It's not like I had a choice in the matter."

"You always have a choice. A choice to obey!" He steps towards you, hands moving emphatically as he speaks. He's getting agitated. "You know if you stop disrespecting your superiors you won't have any trouble. They'll leave you alone! How hard can it be to just fall in line?"

"Falling in line isn't an option," you repeat the words he should already know you'd say. Why does he even bother? "To fall in line is to fall with no end, and I won't let it happen to me. I have no superiors. You think you're better than me?"

"I _am_ better than you!"

He sways back and looks away, frustrated but seemingly resigned to your rebellion. You can almost see the gears moving in his mind as he plots out a new tactic before he looks back at you.

"Fine," he says, voice smooth and calm. "Fight if you want. But at least pick a weapon you know how to use, it's _pathetic_ seeing you stumble around like that. I have a large armory, if you come with me you can look it over and-"

"Don't." you interrupt him. "I'd rather drown in a river than use any weapon you provide me."

"Then you'll have died without accomplishing anything. Is your pride really worth more than the dream you never shut up about?"

You want to rip his face from his skull. How can he smile while talking about your death? Or talk so calmly after watching you nearly killed and doing nothing? You hate how smug he can look, like he knew this would happen. Like he _knew_. Like he...

Your head jerks up. "You knew they were coming after me. You knew and you said nothing."

"I did know."

"You _sent_ them after me."

He's stopped meeting your eyes. "I knew you could take them." he lies. "It was nothing serious. I would have stepped in if you were really in danger."

"Why would you do this?"

He looks back at you, eyes narrowed. He's angry. He thinks he has the right to be angry. "I wanted to teach you a lesson! If you got beaten badly enough maybe you'd think before you step."

"You claim my life wasn't on the line. Would you really have protected me, knowing your assassins would turn on you for manipulating them?"

"Of course I would! I don't want you dead, I just want you to stop this self-destructive life of yours."

"Don't pretend you care." Now it's you who can't look at him.

"I want you at your best." he says. "And I want you to obey the rules and laws we all have to live by. You're never going to take over the world. You couldn't even if you weren't so blind."

It doesn't matter what he says. You're already walking away.

"Talion-"

He doesn't matter. He never did. It's not like you need him anyway. Being a blueblood he would've been put to death under your regime, same as everyone else. Your regime that is definitely going to happen. He's wrong and stupid and selfish.

As soon as you're out of his sight you start stumbling. Your wounds are bad. You can't fall though, because he might come after you. You aren't even going in the direction of your hive. He's definitely going to come after you. You don't hear footsteps though. Or voices, particularly the kind like smooth velvet that only comes in shades of blu

You trip on a rock and hit your head on a tree trunk. You hate trees, maybe you'll put them to death too. Can you even put a tree to death. Maybe you'll plant shrubs instead

What even happens if you fall into a shrub. You might get scratched up. You don't want to get scratched up. You've already lost a lot of bl

You black out.


End file.
